Crosswalk.com aims to offer the most compelling biblically-based content to Christians on their walk with Jesus. Crosswalk.com is your online destination for all areas of Christian Living – faith, family, fun, and community. Each category is further divided into areas important to you and your Christian faith including Bible study, daily devotions, marriage, parenting, movie reviews, music, news, and more.

For Teens, 'Tanorexia' Starts With Mom

Like mother, like daughter — especially at the tanning salon, as it turns out.

Many teen girls hit the tanning salon for the first time with their
moms in tow, says a new study published in the December issue of the
journal Archives of Dermatology. This finding wasn't exactly
surprising to lead researcher Katie Baker, a doctoral student at East
Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn.

"I grew up in a community where indoor tanning was prevalent, and
young women who want to start tanning before they reach 16 or 17 have to
rely on their mother to not only transport them, but to pay for their
tanning," Baker said.

It's a small study, including just 227 girls and young women ages 18
to 30, all undergraduate students at East Tennessee State. But it does
make some interesting observations. Nearly 40 percent of the women said
their first experience with indoor tanning was with their mother — and
those girls tended to start tanning about two years earlier than the
other study participants (starting at age 14 instead of 16). Plus, these
girls were almost five times as likely to be "heavy tanners" as college
students. (In this study, that's defined as tanning more than 25 times a
year.)

In 2009, the World Health Organization said that tanning beds and
ultraviolet radiation are among the top cancer risks , as deadly as
arsenic, mustard gas or cigarettes. And last year, the Food and Drug
Administration considered enacting a ban on tanning beds for those under
18.

Dr. Jessica Krant, a Manhattan dermatologist who wasn't involved with
this study, cautions mothers that their daughters are watching their
unhealthy habits — including tanning, which increases the risk of skin
cancer 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30,
according to the WHO report.

"Moms have an unbelieveable influence on daughters' ideas about
appearance, skin care, and beauty habits," Krant says, "both overtly, by
telling their daughters what they think of their looks, and what they
should be doing to take care of themselves, and indirectly, by having
daughters that watch them like hawks and naturally adopt the routines
and values that moms display."